Presentations

Disclosure of 'Open & Transparent' Research Practices and Public TrustPresented at the 2017 Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) Policy Forum: Risk Governance for Key Enabling Technologies[PRESENTATION WILL BE UPLOADED AFTER CONFERENCE]Presentation showcases results from a manuscript currently under review.

Symposium: Public Attitudes about Polarized SciencePresented at the 2017 American Association for the Advancement of Science

When we seek and evaluate new information, we often need to strike a balance between being too credulous and being too cynical. However, new information can be difficult to digest—either because it is complex or unfamiliar. This can lead some individuals to accept incorrect or unverifiable explanations. Some of these alternative explanations—called “conspiracy theories” —cannot be falsified and assume that those with power and/or authority (e.g., government officials, corporations, scientists, medical professionals) orchestrate cover-ups or intentionally misinform. In this presentation, we examine a measure of conspiracy theory endorsement using Multiple Correspondence Analysis. In addition, we examine the relationships between conspiracy theory endorsement and both Dogmatism and paranoia.

Teaching through questioning: Examining how pedagogical questions elicit learning. Symposium presented at the 2015 meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Philadelphia, PA.

To teachers, it is a truism that questions are fundamental to learning (e.g., Gall, 1970). While questions are typically thought of as tools used by learners who are seeking to fill gaps in their own knowledge (and as tools used by teachers to assess what learners know), questions are also important tools for teaching information (i.e., pedagogical questions or Socratic pedagogy). Although much research has been conducted on questions (e.g., for reviews see Gall, 1970, Wallace & Hurst, 2009), there is little investigating why pedagogical questions might be a good method to facilitate learning. The current presentation examines how pedagogical questions may function similarly to direct instruction, while also encouraging curiosity.

Naïve epistemology: Children use social cues when determining what others know.Symposium presented at the 2015 meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Philadelphia, PA.

Children are influenced by competence (e.g., knowledgeability) and benevolence (e.g., intent, helpfulness) when determining how much to trust claims (e.g., Shafto et al., 2013). Although children seem to be relatively adept at recognizing that certain intellectual cues lead to competence and certain social cues lead to benevolence, other evidence suggests that children do not always weigh these cues appropriately when evaluating others (see Mills, 2013). We discuss two studies that investigate whether cues indicating one dimension (e.g., benevolence) influence judgments regarding the other (e.g., competence).